| Abstrakt: |
This article describes how Toni Morrison's 2008 novel A Mercy serves as a capstone for an American literature survey course. Set in 17th century America, the novel mobilizes early American literary tropes, asking students to review what they already know. Yet A Mercy also raises conceptual questions fundamental to a survey course by foregrounding the processes of literary historiography and canonization. By featuring the narration of a female African American writer - and by marking the uncertain future of her writings - the novel encourages students to consider how canonical literary histories are formed. The students are asked to recognize American literary histories as being marked not only by the national visions they produce, but also by the ones they exclude. A Mercy, therefore, urges students to think of their own reading as being both historically located and subject to history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
